Before becoming governor, Scott ran Solantic Corporation, a network of Florida urgent care centers, which he co-founded in 2001. From 1997 to 2001, he owned a controlling share in America's Health Network, a media company later known as Discovery Health. He headed Columbia Hospital Corporation, a conglomeration of 340 hospitals, from its founding in 1987 to 1997.[1]

Scott is seeking a second term as governor in the 2014 elections.[2] Since late 2012, Scott has repeatedly been rated one of the most vulnerable gubernatorial incumbents of the 2014 election cycle.[3][4] Scott's preexisting concerns about re-election were compounded by the re-emergence of former Republican governor and state attorney generalCharlie Crist, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the August 26 primary. After a brief stint as an Independent, Crist's switch to the Democratic Party in early 2013 signaled ominously to the Scott campaign that the veteran politician was preparing a comeback bid. Recent polls indicate that if both Scott and Crist were to advance to the general election, the contest would be extremely close.[5]

An analysis of Republican governors by Nate Silver of the New York Times in April 2013 ranked Scott as the 20th most conservative governor in the country.[6]

Biography

Scott was born in Illinois, near Bloomington. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where his parents worked as a truck driver and a secretary for J.C. Penney. After high school, Scott spent one year in community college before deciding to join the U.S. Navy.[1]

He served for two and half years, much of that time spent abroad the U.S.S. Glover as a radar technician. Upon leaving the service, Scott attended the University of Missouri and went on to law school in SMU. He began his business career while in college, when he bought and revitalized two doughnut shops. After law school he joined Johnson & Swanson in Dallas, Texas; at the time, the firm was the largest in the city.[1]

While a partner at Johnson & Swanson in 1987, Scott formed HCA Acquisition Company specifically to acquire Hospital Corporation of America and secured funding conditional on completing the acquisition. The initial offer was declined by HCA and ultimately withdrawn.

The next year, he formed Columbia Hospital Corporation and successfully acquired several Dallas area hospitals. Beginning in 1992, Scott and his partners bought a hospital a year for four years, including HCA, his former target. By 1997, Columbia/HCA was the largest healthcare provider on the glove, with annual revenues exceeding $23 billion.

But by then, an investigation begun by the New York Times had caught the eye of the federal government. The federal investigation uncovered evidence of fraud and the company ultimately paid $1.7 billion in fines. Scott's departure from the company was part of the arrangement to avoid criminal charges. Scott relocated to Naples, Florida and founded Richard L. Scott Investments. Starting in 1998, the firm acquired numerous targets.

Issues

Response to the 2014 illegal immigration surge

In response to the 2014 illegal immigration surge, Scott wrote a letter to Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Health and Human Services Secretary. Scott complained about the lack of a system of notification to communities in place for when immigrants were placed there with sponsors or relatives.[7]

Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")

On February 20, 2013, Scott joined the growing brood of reluctant Republican governors to declare his support for Medicaid expansion as outlined under the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as "Obamacare."[8] The controversial federal health care reform bill was passed in March 2010 to the dismay of many Republican elected officials, Scott included, whose disapproval crystallized into a legal effort to have the law overturned by the Supreme Court. The challenge was led by Scott's executive branch colleague, Florida Attorney GeneralPam Bondi. When the Court ultimately upheld Obamacare on June 28, 2012, Scott expressed his commitment to shun optional provisions such as expanding Florida's Medicaid rolls. But the prospect of having to put 3.5 million Florida patients into managed care plans under a federal action waiver convinced him to agree to a three year trial period for expansion, during which the federal government can absorb the costs of adding 1 million low-income Florida residents to the state's Medicaid rolls. "Three years is a reasonable period to judge just how well the expansion is working and to explore further reforms to improve cost, quality and access in health care -- both in the public and private markets."[9]

In Scott's appeal to the Republican-dominated Florida legislature to consent to a three year trial expansion, he pointed to the estimated $26 billion federal dollars Florida could receive in the next 10 years under the expansion. He also appealed to their sense of compassion, citing the significant portion of uninsured Florida residents who stood to become eligible for medicaid under the new requirements. Reversing his position on the expansion "is not a white flag of surrender to government-run health care," Scott insisted.[9]

Job creation ranking

In a June 2013 analysis by The Business Journals looking at 45 of the country's 50 governors by their job creation record, Scott was ranked number 12. The five governors omitted from the analysis all assumed office in 2013. The ranking was based on a comparison of the annual private sector growth rate in all 50 states using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.[10][11]

Trey Radel arrested for cocaine possession

Florida's 19th Congressional DistrictRep.Trey Radel (R) was arrested in the District of Columbia on October 29, 2013, for possession of cocaine. He was officially charged on November 19, 2013, in D.C. Superior Court with misdemeanor possession of cocaine.[12][13] On Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Radel plead guilty to possession of cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of supervised probation.[12][14][15]

Scott called for Radel to resign on November 26, 2013. In a statement he said, "I agree with the party chairman. Look, Trey's going through some hard times. My prayers and my wife's prayers are with his family, but we have to hold all of our elected officials to the highest standard."[16]

On The Issues Vote Match

On The Issues conducts a VoteMatch analysis of elected officials based on 20 issue areas. Rather than relying on incumbents to complete the quiz themselves, the VoteMatch analysis is conducted using voting records, statements to the media, debate transcripts or citations from books authored by or about the candidate. Based on the results of the quiz, Scott is a Libertarian-Leaning Conservative. Scott received a score of 28 percent on social issues and 76 percent on economic issues.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag;
refs with no content must have a name

On The Issues organization logo.

The table below contains the results of analysis compiled by staff at On The Issues.

Elections

2014

Scott ran for re-election in 2014.[19] Since December 2012, reports from Governing and the Cook Political Report have rated the Florida governor's race as a "toss-up," meaning Scott is one of the most vulnerable governors up for re-election in 2014.[20][21] Scott sought the Republican nomination in the primary on August 26, 2014. The general election took place November 4, 2014.

Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

**Incumbency is denoted by asterisk (*)

Campaign media

Navy - Posted to YouTube 4/16/14

Ran Away - Posted to YouTube 4/24/14

Grandpa - Posted to YouTube 5/16/14

Spanish-language campaign ads

Race background

Republican incumbent Rick Scott was re-elected to a second term as governor in 2014. Sources such as Governing,Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball,The Cook Political Report, The Washington Post and Daily Kos had rated Scott among the most vulnerable governors of the electoral cycle.[22][23][24][25][26]Polls projected an extremely close contest between Scott and his prime contender, former Republican Governor Charlie Crist, who became a Democrat before mounting his comeback bid against Scott. Indeed, the race came down to the wire on election night.[27]

Education debate

Charlie Crist and Rick Scott sparred over education funding as the primary election transitioned into a general election. Prior to the Republican primary, Scott announced that he would boost per-pupil spending to record levels if re-elected in November. The governor's office published a statement promising an increase in per-pupil funding to $7,132 per student for the 2016 fiscal year, which would surpass the $7,126 per student rate passed during Crist's first year as governor in 2007. He cited improving job figures in his office's optimistic outlook on public education financing.[28]

Crist toured the state in a school bus in August in order to highlight cuts in public education since Scott won election. He noted that the governor facilitated $1.3 billion in education cuts during the 2012 fiscal year.[28] Crist stated on his campaign website that he would push public schools and their partners to reach the top 10 percent of schools globally as measured by reading, math and science scores by 2020.[29]

Ad spending, influence

The Scott vs. Crist election battle played out largely through television ads during the general election. Whether sponsored internally or produced and aired under the auspices of independent expenditures, the commercials were predominantly negative, with each candidate and his outside backers barring no holds to disgrace the other before Florida's electorate of active television viewers.

In late September, Scott upped the ante on media spending for the race by sinking an additional $8 million on television commercials, next to Crist's roughly $5.5 million ad-buy increase on current and future spots. Already a wallet-shattering sum, those ad-buys put the total amount spent on behalf of the two frontrunners' marketing campaigns past the $50 million mark. Scott was responsible for 71 percent, or over $35 million, of this pot, far eclipsing contributions from Crist and his supporters. The incumbent's standing in the race remained precarious during the marketing blitz, but polls conducted during this stage indicated a slight improvement for Scott. These marginal gains invited comparisons to his road from virtual no-name to victory back in 2010, which was attributed in large part to a massive emphasis on TV commercials.[30]

A September 23 article in The Miami Herald pointed out that a candidate's on-air presence does not guarantee success in an election, although Florida's media-marketing landscape is such that a candidate who neglects television altogether is almost guaranteed to fail. "If TV ads decided the governor’s race, Scott would win in a landslide," the article stated.[30]

Primary races

In June 2013, ex-Florida Sen. Nan Rich became the first Democratic candidate in the race. She was later joined by former Florida Gov. and newly-minted Democrat Charlie Crist. Crist's candidacy loomed heavy over Scott's re-election campaign, according to match-up and approval polls dating back as far as May 2012.[31][32][33]

Long affiliated with the Republican Party, Crist's first party switch occurred in 2010, when, after losing the Republican primary for U.S. Senate to Marco Rubio, he changed his registration to Independent as an alternative route to reaching the general election ballot. In the fall of 2013, Crist became a Democrat. This latest party makeover was widely interpreted as a strategic maneuver to help him unseat Scott in the 2014 governor's race.[34]

As the Crist story unfolded and media coverage about Scott's struggles increased, a slew of other, lesser-known hopefuls began filing for the office, mainly as write-ins or with no party affiliation. By October 2013, there were over twenty potentials actively petitioning for a place on the primary and general election ballots.[35] When the filing window finally closed on June 20, 2014, the number had dropped to 18 qualified gubernatorial candidates. The Republican field settled to three, including Scott, while the Democratic field remained a head-to-head battle between Crist and Rich. Unopposed Libertarian nominee Adrian Wyllie earned a direct pass to the general election, along with nine write-ins and three candidates with no stated party preference.[36]

Under Article IV of the Florida Constitution, gubernatorial nominees are required to select running mates after the primary, though they are permitted to do so in advance. Customs for selecting running mates vary across Florida's main political parties. For example, Crist was chided for breaking with party tradition when he announced Annette Taddeo-Goldstein as his lieutenant governor pick prior to the primary. "Because he’s been a life-long Republican, Charlie Crist might be excused for not knowing that Democrats typically don’t choose a running mate until they win the nomination," jabbed Nan Rich, his Democratic primary challenger, in a July campaign press release.[37]

In January, Scott appointed Carlos Lopez-Cantera as Florida's new lieutenant governor, ending an extended vacancy in the office that began with former-Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll's March 2013 resignation amid a public relations scandal. Since Lopez-Cantera's appointment occurred during a gubernatorial election year, his qualifications as a campaigner factored significantly into his selection. Scott and Carroll shared the ticket in 2010, so the governor was left with the responsibility of picking not only a new lieutenant governor to serve out Carroll's term, but also a new running mate for the 2014 election.

Scott and Crist handily secured their respective parties' nominations in the August 26 primary election.[38]

Scott and Cantera-Lopez were elected governor and lieutenant governor on a joint ticket in the general election on November 4, 2014.

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Scott is available dating back to 2010. Based on available campaign finance records, Scott raised a total of $67,488,953 during that time period. This information was last updated on July 8, 2013.[40]

Rick Scott's Campaign Contribution History

Year

Office

Result

Contributions

2012

Governor of Florida

$0

2010

Governor of Florida

$67,488,953

Grand Total Raised

$67,488,953

2010

Ballotpedia collects information on campaign donors for each year in which a candidate or incumbent is running for election. The following table offers a breakdown of Rick Scott & Jennifer Carroll's donors each year.[41] Click [show] for more information.

↑The questions in the quiz are broken down into two sections -- social and economic. In social questions, liberals and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while conservatives and populists agree in choosing the more-restrictive answers. For the economic questions, conservatives and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while liberals and populists agree in choosing the more-restrictive answers.